• DeAndre Hopkins leaves its mark on the Kansas City Chiefs: The veteran wide receiver scored multiple receiving touchdowns for the 14th time in his Hall-of-Fame career.

• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers rely on undrafted wide receivers: The Buccaneers’ top four wide receivers were dealing with injuries, so their top two wideouts in short order were free agents they signed after the 2023 NFL Draft.

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Kansas City Chiefs

Buccaneers adjust while targeting several wide receivers: The Buccaneers were down in the top three wide receivers, and their next best option was questionable for this game.

Chris Godwin is out for the season with a dislocated ankle. Mike Evans has missed the past two games with a hamstring injury and could miss another game or two. Jalen McMillan appeared on the injury report on Saturday with a hamstring injury and was questionable for this game before ultimately being inactive. Sterling Shepard was also struggling with a hamstring injury, which kept him out of training on Thursday and Friday and limited him on Saturday. He was also classified as questionable.

Trey Palmer started the season as the team’s fourth wide receiver. Once Evans went down with his injury, Palmer served as the primary X receiver. Last week, Rakim Jarrett was activated from injured reserve and began rotating with Palmer. Jarrett was the team’s most productive receiver in Week 8, gaining 58 yards on three receptions. This earned him the lead X role for this game, replacing Palmer. He should remain in this role until Evans returns from his injury.

Shepard had taken over Godwin’s role in the slot, but he was unable to start this week due to his injury. Ryan Millerwho was taken off the practice squad when Godwin landed on injured reserve, started instead. He was the primary backup to both Shepard and McMillan last week. Miller was the primary slot receiver for most of this game, but with the Buccaneers forced to play in the final two minutes, Shepard outscored Miller almost overnight. This role will return to Shepard once he is closer to 100%.

This left Palmer playing primarily as the Z receiver, the role he competed for with McMillan during training camp. Both Shepard and Miller sometimes played in the Z role in place of Palmer, while the other played in the slot of those plays. Once McMillan is healthy again, he will return to this role.

This leaves Jarrett as the odd man out once everyone is healthy. He had more experience in the Z role last season, so he could take some time from McMillan there later in the season, in which case McMillan could take some time from Shepard in the slot. McMillan has the most upside among the Buccaneers’ young wide receivers, and more snaps from the slot could increase his fantasy value.

DeAndre Hopkins shines in second game: Hopkins was on the field much more often this week than in his first game with the Chiefs.

The Chiefs traded for Hopkins before Week 8, and he played 23 of 72 total snaps and ran 14 routes of 44 pass plays in his debut. He largely split time with Mecole Hardman. This week his playing time increased significantly. The Chiefs turned their wide receivers a lot less often than usual until they ran with the ball to maintain a lead in the fourth quarter. Since they rarely had a lead, they stayed with 11 men for much of the match, but they mixed in about 12 men, especially early on.

Hopkins was picked off on a fair number of passing plays, but given his age and how much he’s been shut down in recent seasons, this is probably as good a route entry as we can expect. That was him Patrick Mahomes‘ clearly favorite target outside Travis Kelce. He can safely be inserted into a fantasy starting lineup in the future, although there will likely be a few weeks where he doesn’t have much production as other Chiefs score and the team can keep the streak going.

Hopkins has traditionally been an X receiver, but Mahomes traditionally doesn’t throw to X receivers often. Hopkins had six receptions while standing wide at the line of scrimmage. This marked the first time in Mahomes’ career that a receiver had six or more receptions while wide on the line. It appears Mahomes and the Chiefs are comfortable adjusting their strategy to play to Hopkins’ strengths.

The big question now is how the Chiefs will distribute the snaps once JuJu Smith-Schuster is back. Although Hopkins was primarily an outside wide receiver in his career, he played about a third of his snaps in the slot and two-thirds on the outside. This also applied to Xavier Waard And Justin Watson. None of Kansas City’s wide receivers were effective out of the slot, save for a 35-yard reception for Hopkins. There’s a good chance that Smith-Schuster will be the Chiefs’ primary receiver once he returns, which would lead to a decrease in snaps for Worthy, Watson or both.

Various comments

• Patrick Mahomes suffered an ankle injury in the second half. He returned to the game on the next drive, but still seemed uncomfortable at times. It will be worth keeping an eye on this week, in case his injury is more serious than initially thought.
• The Buccaneers called Marquez Callaway from the practice squad to serve as their fifth wide receiver. He has only been with the team for two and a half weeks. He didn’t play the first half, but he did take a few photos Rakim Jarrett in the second half.
• Sean Tucker has been largely removed from the offense as his playing time decreases significantly each week. He didn’t play on offense in the first half, and his snaps in the second half came after a 46-yard kickoff Bucky Irving. He can be dropped in most leagues.
• Over the past two weeks, the Chiefs have been backing up tight ends Jody Fortson And Jared Wiley were placed in the wounded reserve. This prompted the team to sign Peyton Hendershot to the active selection. The Chiefs traded for Hendershot in August, released him in September and have had him on the practice squad ever since.
• While Clyde Edwards-Helaire has been eligible to play for Kansas City for a few weeks now, he has consistently been a healthy inactive.
• Mecole Hardman was the fourth wide receiver for Kansas City in this game, but he missed most of the first half after suffering an injury on his first punt return.
• The Chiefs have been elevated Justyn Ross Off the practice squad for the first time this season. He was their fifth wide receiver.

Table notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. These plays have been removed from the other three statistics.